Die assembly and attachments for automatic doughnut-making machines



March 6, 1962 c. D. GILMORE 3,023,715

DIE ASSEMBLY AND ATTACHMENTS FOR AUTOMATIC DOUGHNUT-MAKING MACHINES Original Filed April 27, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 83 73 IN VENTOR March 6, 1962 Original Filed April 27, 1953 DIE ASSEMBLY AND ATTACHMENTS FOR AUTOMATIC DOUGHNUT-MAKING MACHINES 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 March 6, 1 962 c. D. GILMORE 3,023,715

DIE ASSEMBLY AND ATTACHMENTS FOR AUTOMATIC DOUGHNUT-MAKING MACHINES Original Filed April 27, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 I T72 w 64 67 R g M1 'P x 88 I 6 O 56 INVENTOR United States Patent 3,023,715 DIE ASSEMBLY AND ATTACHMENTS FOR AUTO- MATIC DOUGHNUT-MAKING MACHINES Chace D. Gilmore, 219 S. Mechanics St., West Chester, Pa.

Original application Apr. 27, 1953, Ser. No. 351,087, new Patent No. 2,915,992, dated Dec. 8, 1959. Divided and this application Oct. 26, 1959, Ser. No. 848,688

3 Claims. (Cl. 107-14) This application is a division of my application Serial No. 351,087 filed April 27, 1953, patented December 8, 1959, No. 2,915,992, entitled Die Attachments for Doughnut-Making Machines.

An object of the invention is to provide a die assembly for making thoroughly cooked doughnuts having more than three holes, said die assembly being an attachment for automatic doughnut-making machines. An example of such a doughnut is shown in my Design Patent No. 180,900 dated September 3, 1957. The die assembly is particularly designed for use with commercial doughnutmaking machines, Without important changes in the construction of such machines. Another object is to provide for locking of the dough can (which is flexibly supported) against rotation. A further object is to provide means for holding the dough can against movement upwardly responsive to its counterweight, until such movement is desired. Other objects will be apparent from the following description of the machine and attachments and mode of operation.

The present invention provides a die attachment whose product is a doughnut so shaped and formed that it is thoroughly cooked and may be digested by anyone in normal health. The doughnuts are so made that they may be separated or broken by the fingers into several bite-size pieces, which is a further advantage of my invention.

This application is a companion to another divisional application Ser. No. 844,977 filed October 7, 1959, now Patent No. 2,985,119, issued May 23, 1961, wherein the process of making these doughnuts is claimed.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification FIG. 1 is a perspective view of part of a prior art doughnut-making machine equipped with one of the die attachments;

FIG. 2 is an elevation of the dough can, the cutter sleeve, the pivoted yoke, and certain associated parts;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view on a larger scale showing the pivoted yoke for operating the cutter sleeve of the doughnut-forming device, and showing certain associated parts of the prior art machine;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view like FIG. 3 but showing a difierent view of the parts;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the die attachment;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the parts of FIG. 5, scale about full size;

FIG. 7 is a full size sectional elevation of one of the five dough-extruding tubes;

FIG. 8 is a cross-section through the lower ends of the five dough-extruding tubes;

FIG. 9 is a detail in perspective showing the lower end of one of the dough-extruding tubes;

FIG. 10 is a bottom plan view of the attachment, scale about full size;

FIG. 11 is a section on line 11--11 of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 12 is a plan view, on a reduced scale, of a doughnut made with the die attachment of the preceding figures.

Before proceeding with a detailed description of the apparatus, it should be explained that FIGS. 1 to 11 inice elusive are the same as FIGS. 1 to 11 inclusive of the aforesaid Patent No. 2,915,992. Also disclosed in said patent, but not shown here, is a second form of die attachment for making the same kind of doughnuts; this second form being the form of FIGS. 13-23 inclusive of said patent. Both die attachments were designed for use with commercial doughnut-making machines of the type shown in the Bergner Patents Nos. 1,492,542 and 1,727,- 857, and the Hunter Patent No. 1,817,887.

This prior art machine comprises a hermetically-sealed dough can (or magazine), shown at 25 herein, said dough can having a compressed air line 26 coupled to its cover 27, which is clamped in position and has a gasket (not shown) to hold the air pressure. A yoke 28 straddles the cover and a counter-weighted cable (which extends around an overhead system of pulleys to a heavy weight, not shown) makes it possible to raise the dough can manually even when full of dough. The air line 26 extends to a compressed air tank, which with the air pump, electric motor for driving the pump, safety valve, bleed valve, air gauge, etc., are omitted as being well understood by those skilled in the art. The described dough can is designed to be partly filled with a doughnut mix, not shown, and when closed and sealed, is designed to extrude the dough (because of the air pressure) through one of the die attachments of the invention, thereby forming a dough shape which drops by gravity into a bath of hot cooking oil (not shown) kept at an even temperature by means of a thermostatically-controlled electric heater element (not shown). While floating in this bath of hot oil the dough shapes are forced to travel in a circular path and are turned over; then the doughnuts are lifted out, drained and discharged by means of chute 30 (FIG. 1) onto a conveyor, for example, where the hot doughnuts may cool somewhat before being wrapped or packaged. These details are omitted from the drawings as they form no part of my invention.

The die attachment to be described is designed to be releasably secured on the lower end of one of the dough cans 25 of a prior art machine, and is best shown in FIGS. 5-11 inclusive. At its upper end, the die attachment has a heavy metal collar 35 which is circular in plan (FIG. 6) and has a plurality of circular shoulders 36, 37 (FIG. 7) permitting the collar to fit complemental surfaces provided on the lower end of the dough can. Shoulders 36, 37 and the end flange 38 provide a sealing connection between the attachment and the dough can, so that all the dough subjected to air pressure must flow through the attachment and its extrusion die members to form doughnuts of the shape desired.

A pair of locking pins 39, 49 are slidable in bores 41, 42 provided at diametrically opposite points in collar 35; each locking pin has an enlarged head to facilitate pulling it out to disengage its inner reduced end from bores (not shown) provided in the complemental or male part 43 (FIG. 2) of the dough can. Springs 44, 45 respectively project the inner reduced ends of the locking pins 39, 4'0 into bore-engaging position to lock the die attachment rigidly on the dough can while permitting quick manual detachment thereof at any time.

Secured by press-fitting (or otherwise) to the lower part of collar 35 are a plurality of thin metal die tubes 46, 47, 48, 49 and 5t). While five tubes are shown, and this is the preferred number, there may be as few as three or as many as nine. If only three tubes are provided, each tube will be materially larger in diameter than the tubes 46-50; whatever their number, each die tube is cylindrical, is made of smoothly polished metal, is straight, and has a beveled upper or inlet end 51, as Well as an integral flange 52 abutted against the underfixed part of the machine.

parts of the bodies of two other doughnuts.

side of collar 35. Each die tube further has a valve seat 55 adjacent to but outside of its lower end, each valve seat or disk 55 having a beveled or frusto-conical inner face 55 and a. tapped boss 55 by which it is screwed or pinned to the lower end of a stem 56. Stems 56 are straight rods which pass through spiders 57 fixed inside the die tubes, and also through spiders 58 fixed at the upper ends of the die tubes on the inside; these spiders are plural-armed spacers and braces which hold each stem 56 in the center of the die tube and allow the dough to flow past them down the die tube and out of it when 'the cut-off valves permit such flow. As shown in FIGS.

said tubes.

Slidably mounted on the outside of each die tube and v closely fitting the same are sleeves 59, 60, 61, 62 and 63 respectively. The sleeves are secured at their upper ends to an annular collar 64 and are easily disconnected therefrom. As shown, each sleeve 59-63 has an car 65 l fixed thereto and projecting laterally, with a stud 66 passed through a perforation in the ear and screwed into the bottom of annular collar 64. See FIGS. 5, 10 and 11. A pair of diametrically opposite pins 67, 68 are fixed to and project outwardly from annular collar 64, and said pins are received in slots 69, 70 on the ends of a yoke 71 (FIGS. 1-4) which is pivoted at 72 upon a (Yoke 71 is also a prior art element.) Yoke 71 has an arm 73 adapted to swing in a vertical plane, and a vertically reciprocated link 74 has a slot-and-pin connection 75 with the free end of arm 73. Link 74 is intermittently reciprocated by a cam mechanism as is known in the prior art and hence not illustrated. Obviously rocking of yoke 71 will cause the assembly consisting of annular collar 64 and sleeves 59- 63 to reciprocate vertically on the die tubes 46-50. In its lowest position, each sleeve 59-63 will contact a valve seat 55 asshown in FIG. 7. In their uppermost positions, sleeves 59-63 will be spaced above valve seats 55 as shown in FIGS. 5, 9 and 11: this spacing will permit the soft dough mix to be extruded responsive to the pneumatic pressure previously mentioned. It will now be clear that the slidable sleeves are actually cut-ofi valves. As shown in FIGS. 7, 9 and 11, the lower ends of sleeves 59-63 are beveled to provide circular knife edges (59, 60 61 62 and 63 to cooperate with the valve seats 55 to cut olf the dough cleanly.

One of the features of the die assembly is best shown in FIGS. 7 and 11 and consists of thin baflles 76 brazed or otherwise secured to the inside of each die tube. The function of these thin baffles or barriers is to prevent excess dough mix from flowing at certain points out of the die tubes, which would form upstanding knobs on the dough shape which is to be fried in the hot oil. To understand this, reference should be made to FIG. 12, where the product of the invention is shown in plan. As there seen, the doughnut product 70 is essentially five small doughnuts joined together, each little doughnut having part of its body merged on opposite sides with If the thin baffles 76 or their equivalents are not used, an excess quantity of dough above what is needed at each junction point P may be extruded by the die assembly. This excess dough may build up on top of the dough product to form knobs and after the cooking in hot oil, a hard, high protuberance 0r knob is left at each junction point, which is most objectionable for three reasons, namely, it mars the appearance of the doughnut, wastes dough, and makes packaging difficult and costly. To understand better the last-mentioned objection, it should be explained that these undesirable knobs would practically double the thickness of the doughnut at five points, increasing the amount of necessary wrapping or packaging material and making the actual handling of the doughnuts during packaging far more complicated; The simple provision of the thin baflles 76 cuts down the flow of dough in certain directions during extrusion, so that only the proper amount flows to each junction point P and no knobs are formed. In other words, the doughnuts formed by the described die attachment are of substantially equal thickness at all points, and may be packaged as readily as any comparable bakery product.

As previously explained, the spring actuated locking pins 39, 4t? lock the die assembly upon the lower end of the dough can; this prevents separation of these parts and also rotation or oscillation of the die assembly. To prevent rotation of the suspended dough can, a gravity latch 81 (FIGS. 1-3) is pivotally mounted on a fixed horizontal shelf 82 which is part of the prior art machine. Latch S1 is so designed that it automatically lifts and then drops to lock over the shank of pin 40 when the dough can and die assembly are turned to bring pin 40 against latch 81. To prevent the dough can and die assembly from rising automatically responsive to the counterweight previously mentioned (which could occur when the dough can has discharged its contents) the heavy metal collar 35 is provided with a pair of diametrically opposite pins 53, 84 (FIGS. 5 and 11) integral therewith and adapted to pass through a pair of notches or slots 85, 86 cut in the edge of shelf 82. As FIGS. 3 and 4 show, the notches or slots 85, 86 are in a line which is at an angle of about 45 relative to the line of pins 83, 84, so that the die assembly must be turned about 45 to bring pins 83, 84 into registry with the notches or slots to permit the dough can to rise. In the normal position (FIGS. 1-3) the dough can may neither rise nor descend nor turn. To permit any turning, the gravity latch 81 must be manually lifted; then the dough can may be turned, and once the pins 83, 84 register with the notches or slots, the dough can may be raised with the die assembly. The die assembly is of course removable from the dough can after both the spring latch pins 39, 40 are pulled out manually.

To hold the die assembly parts against separation, once 'the die assembly has been taken 01f the dough can, a stud 87 (FIG. 11) having a head 88 and a reduced screw threaded portion 89 is passed through a bore 90 in annular collar 64, so that collar 64 may slide on stud 87. The reduced portion 89 passes through a bore 91 in the center of the heavy metal collar 35 (see FIG. 6) and a wing nut 92 is threaded on said reduced portion 89. Thus the slidable parts of the die assembly are held on the stationary parts when the die assembly is separated from the dough can which normally supports it. While the stroke of these slidable parts is not usually more than one-half inch, and frequently is less, the position of head 88 on stud 87 (FIG. 11) permits a considerable adjustment of the stroke. By removing wing nut 92, the slidable sleeves may be slid off the die tubes, and the several parts of the die assembly are then easily cleaned and inspected for wear, etc. Usually it is preferable to' raise the dough can out'of the way when the die assembly has been removed. To facilitate this, a set of vertical guides 93, 94, '95, 96 are fixed to the frame of the machine, as indicatedin FIGS. land 2, and complemental wings 97, 98 fixed to and projecting from the dough can engage the guides to insure a straight rise or descent of the dough can. This isa great convenience, as it is sometimes necessary to stop all production and examine and adjust parts of the machine or even disas semble some parts.

Employing the principles of the above described die attachment, it is apparent that three-ringeifour-ringed, six-ringed or multi-ringed doughnuts may be formed in lieu of the five-ringed doughnut shown in FIG. 12. There is, of course, a limit to the number of rings which may be put together, also there are limits (maximum and minimum) to the sizes of the individual rings. The

five-ringed doughnut shown is the product presently preferred by me. The doughnuts made by the die attachment of the invention are characterized by thorough cooking, because the hot fat cooks the interior more completely than is the case with commercial doughnuts, so that products of the invention are more digestible and have a difierent flavor sometimes described as nut-like. Another advantageous feature of the product is that it may be easily broken or parted along the junction areas P of the rings, and when so parted, the rings form convenient mouthfuls, being easily handled as they are each bite size. The lines of parting are indicated approximately by the dot-and-dash lines in FIG. 12.

What I claim is:

1. An attachment for automatic doughnut making machines of the type employing a dough can which extrudes the dough directly above a reservoir of hot cooking fat, said attachment comprising a die assembly adapted to be mounted on the lower end of said dough can and to receive at its upper end the dough forced out of the dough can, said assembly comprising at least three spaced vertical die tubes, each of said die tubes having a cylindrical sleeve slidable longitudinally thereof, said sleeves having dough cutting lower edges, and a stationary disk mounted fixedly below the lower ends of each of said die tubes and spaced sufiiciently to permit an extrusion of a doughnut shape between each die tube and its respective disk when said sleeves are lowermost, said die tubes being arranged in juxtaposition so that the extruded dough shapes will coalesce into a single unitary doughnut shape, plural latch means adapted to fit complementary means on the dough can, an automatic latch adapted to be mounted on the doughnut making machine in such a position that it is engageable with one of said plural latch means, the dough can being suspended by a flexible support which permits it to be rotated on its vertical axis, and said die assembly, when fixed on the dough can, being movable to bring one of said plural latch means against said automatic latch, whereby the dough can is locked against rotation on its vertical axis through the intermediation of said die assembly.

2. An attachment for automatic doughnut making machines of the type employing a dough can which extrudes the dough directly above a reservoir of hot cooking fat, said attachment comprising a die assembly adapted to be mounted on the lower end of said dough can and to receive at its upper end the dough forced out of the dough can, said assembly comprising at least three spaced vertical die tubes, each of said die tubes having a cylindrical sleeve slidable longitudinally thereof, said sleeves having dough cutting lower edges, and a stationary disk mounted fixedly below the lower ends of each of said die tubes and spaced sufliciently to permit an extrusion of a doughnut shape between each die tube and its respec tive disk when said sleeves are lowermost, said die tubes being arranged in juxtaposition so that the extruded dough shapes will coalesce into a single unitary doughnut shape, said machine having a support for the dough can which is flexible and extends to a counterweight so that the dough can be easily raised when its contents have been discharged, the machine having a fixed horizontal shelf, and an opening with notches through which notches projecting pins may pass, said projecting pins engaging under said shelf when the dough can is rotated to hold the counterweighed dough can from rising responsive to the counterweight until said pins have been brought again into registry with said notches.

3. An attachment for automatic doughnut making machines of the type employing a dough can which extrudes the dough directly above a reservoir of hot cooking fat, said attachment comprising a die assembly adapted to be mounted on the lower end of said dough can and to receive at its upper end the dough forced out of the dough can, said assembly comprising at least three spaced vertical die tubes, each of said die tubes having a cylindrical sleeve slidable longitudinally thereof, said sleeves having dough cutting lower edges, and a stationary disk mounted fixedly below the lower ends of each of said die tubes and spaced sufficiently to permit an extrusion of a doughnut shape between each die tube and its respective disk when said sleeves are lowermost, said die tubes being arranged in juxtaposition so that the extruded dough shapes will coalesce into a single unitary doughnut shape, said sleeves being connected by a circular collar having a pair of pins projecting therefrom at diametrically opposite points, said die tubes being connected through another collar, a stud being located centrally of the die assembly and having a head at its lower end and screw threads at its upper end, and a wing nut on said screw threads, the upper end of said stud being above the second mentioned collar, and the stud head being below the first mentioned collar so that the entire die assembly is held together when it has been removed from the dough can, said pairs of pins permitting power movement of the slidable sleeves simultaneously by the machine mechanism.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,518,587 Laskey Dec. 9, 1924 2,244,854 Sandin June 10, 1941 2,335,966 Roos Dec. 7, 1943 2,760,426 Norris Aug. 28, 1956 

